Categories

Prof Andy Lowe

Prof Andy Lowe is a British-Australian scientist and expert in conservation biology. He has discovered lost forests, championed to eliminate illegally logged timber in global supply chains, served the UN’s Office of Drugs and Crime and has been responsible for securing multi-million dollar research funding. He is an experienced and respected executive leader, as well as mid-career mentor. Andy is currently Director of Food Innovation at the University of Adelaide serving as a single entry point for all significant food industry and government sectors across South Australia, and the world.

#foodporn – trending for over 500 years

Food porn is the glamourised or spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating. Typically images feature foods that are high in fat and calories, exotic dishes that arouse a desire to eat or the glorification of food as a substitute for sex.

The term was first coined by feminist critic Rosalind Coward in her 1984 book Female Desire, but #foodporn is now one of the most commonly trending hashtags on Instagram.

….artists tended to paint glorified, extravagant meals based on desire rather than reality […] not representative of a typical diet.

It’s interesting to note then that our obsession with looking at tasty, exotic food is nothing new. A recent analysis undertaken by Cornell University researchers looked at the food content of paintings over the last 500 years. They found that artists tended to paint glorified, extravagant meals based on desire rather than reality. Paintings tended to feature shellfish and exotic fruit, and were not representative of a typical diet.

Section of Jasper Geeraerts’s “Pronk Still Life with Lobster”

For the study, published in SageOpen, researchers selected 750 European and American food paintings from the past 500 years, and focused particularly on 140 paintings of family meals.

Across the spectrum of paintings, 76% of all the meals depicted included fruits, but only 19% contained vegetables. Over 54% showed bread and pastries and 39% contained meat. Salt was the most commonly depicted seasoning and cheese the most common dairy product.

The authors attempt at foodporn, although lemons are no longer exotic to our shops or gardens, so maybe this is #foodpoor instead.

The most commonly painted vegetable was an artichoke, the most common fruit was a lemon, and the most common meat was shellfish, usually lobster. Overall, shellfish were depicted in 22% of paintings despite being rather uncommon.

According to the authors, these paintings featured food that was either aspirational—rare or hard to afford—or foods painters thought would make the paintings most aesthetically pleasing.

Share this:

Like this:

Prof Andy Lowe is a British-Australian scientist and expert on plants and trees, particularly the monitoring, management and utilisation of genetic, biological and ecosystem resources.
He has discovered new species, lost forests, championed to eliminate illegally logged timber in global supply chains, served the UN’s Office of Drugs and Crime and has been responsible for securing multi-million dollar research funding. He is an experienced and respected executive leader, as well as mid-career mentor.
Andy is the inaugural Director of Food Innovation at the University of Adelaide serving as the external face for all significant food industry and government sectors across South Australia, and the world.

Post navigation

Welcome

If you’re passionate about the journey of food, biological resources, sustainability and innovation, then you’ve come to the right place! Prof Andy Lowe tackles questions about how the food we eat is grown, consumed, protected, and even wasted.